The Abrya Coast

Lost Mines of Phandelver S1

Session 1 - Ambush!

22

JAN/17

Day 1

Our group’s adventure begins on the road to the remote town of Phandalin from the large city of Neverwinter. A covered wagon stuffed to the brim with mining supplies kicks up a cloud of dust as it creaks down the dirt road.

A large, green, Dragonborn in shining scale mail armor sat at the helm, directing the two oxen who pulled the wagon. This is the paladin warrior known as Enron.

Sitting next to Enron, eyes intensely watching their surroundings, was the much smaller High Elf Ranger Xanphia Laid. Her green skin and purple hair mostly hidden under her large hooded cloak.

Leading the way, walking quietly in front of the oxen, was a fair skinned female Half Elf Sorcerer named Antime Bloodstorm. Her long white hair framing her face as her pale blue eyes kept watch ahead.

Flanking the right side of the wagon was fairly young Wood Elf Druid named Thailee. Long, dreaded, fiery red hair trailing behind her as she marched forward, using a long spear as a walking stick.

Kix, a green skinned, and red frilled, Lizardfolk Cleric took up the left side. She trudged along the side of the wagon, a large war hammer and wooden shield across her back.

Bringing up the rear, a little faster than the rest, was the Wizard, Forest Gnome Saxim. His skin tanned almost as dark brown as his hair. The ground in front of him constantly being scanned by his dark purple eyes for anything that piqued his interest.

The party had all been hired by a mutual friend, the Dwarf Gundrin, to escort the wagon load of goods to the pioneer town of Phandalin.

A few days into their journey the convoy spots two dead horses blocking their path along the Triboar trail. They could see from about fifty feet back that they seem to have several arrows embedded in their sides. Weary of the possible danger, Xanphia decided to stealthily scout ahead of the group to see what she finds. Flanking the right rim of the path, slinking within the forest’s shadows, she managed to spot three Goblins waiting to ambush anyone who approaches the blockade. Antime telepathically relayed a message to Xanphia inquiring about what she has found. Quietly she reported back her findings as she snuck back to the group. Together they decided it would be best to check the other side of the road as well, just in case there are greater numbers of the Goblins. The idea paid off as she discovered another group of three Goblins waiting here as well.

The party regrouped and began discussing how they should proceed. The group decided that they would split up and attempt to ambush the ambushers. One team with Antime and Xanphia would attempt to subdue the group on the left of the trail, while the rest tackle the right. As the right flank’s group walked up the side of the embankment Saxim was caught discussing their plans a little too loud, and inadvertently alerted the Goblins of the party’s approach. The goblins Immediately sprung into action upon hearing the not so stealthy Gnome, alerting to the other side of the path as well. Two of each group of Goblins rushed our heroes blades at the ready, while the remaining two held back notching their short bows.

Having spotted the small creatures running directly at him, Enron stepped directly into their path, creating a barrier with his massive frame. Glaring down at the two approaching enemies he deeply inhaled and spewed a massive blast of fire from his jaws directly into the faces of the feeble Goblins who had been unlucky enough to challenge him. Once the smoke cleared it could bee seen that one of the Goblins has been reduced to a smoldering corpse and the other was screaming in pain, on the edge of death and beginning to flee for his life. Taking advantage of the chaos of the right flank, Thailee moved into line of sight of the Goblin archer reaching out to him with her mind. Within moments his weak mind had been charmed and befriended. Wishing to extract information from him she instructed him to stand down and hide a distance into the Forest.

The lead Goblin of the left flank, having been momentarily distracted by the decimation of his companions, was completely blindsided by Kix’s crushing attack. With a mighty swing her war-hammer the Goblin’s head is severed from his body and pitched deep into the woods. One moment he had been watching his allies roasting and the next his now headless corpse was laying in the dirt.

At the same moment Xanphia had let loose an arrow from her long bow aiming for the Goblin further behind. Unfortunately for Xanphia, he had noticed her just in time and managed to roll out of the way of her shot. Even more unfortunately for the goblin, he had rolled right up to the feet of Saxim. With a wide grin, Saxim gingerly raised his hands and unleashed a torrent of flames from the tips of his fingers directly into the face of the small evil creature. All that remained of the attacker was a single slightly charred boot.

Seeing his comrades completely decimated in a matter of seconds by this approaching group the remaining Goblin archer of the left flank attempted to scramble back into the woods and reach safety. As he turned to flee a crossbow bolt ruptured through the front of the Goblin’s skull and embedded itself in a nearby tree, the Goblins lifeless corpse dropping to the dirt.

Thailee approached the charmed Goblin, who had been sitting quietly behind a tree waiting for her to retrieve him. She spotted the other severely injured goblin, but was unable to stop him. Moving as fast as he could, he escaped back into the woods. The party gathered around the lone goblin and began to Interrogate him. They were able to discover that the goblins had been waiting here for a Dwarf named Gundrin, that their local hideout was about five miles north of here. Feeling that she had all the information they needed she then sent the Goblin away to wander the forest for the rest of the hour the spell would last. No one spoke up but it seemed that not everyone agreed with this decision.

The group began scouting the area around the ambush site, and looting what they could find. The Goblins themselves had nothing but their weapons in their possession, but Saxim decided to take the laces of the boot from the Goblin he disintegrated. They were able to locate the foot trail that the Goblins had been using to trek back and forth from their hideout to the ambush site. Xanpiha, an experienced tracker, informed the group that at least 12 different goblins had been using this trail and had obviously used it recently.

The group set off tracking the Goblin’s trail, Thailee leading the way. Enron, Kix, and Saxim followed her directly on the trail, while Xanphia and Antime took the right and left flanks. About 10 minutes down this trail Xanphia called out and stopped the group. She crept forward and pointed out a snare trap laying across the path. Thailee used the end of her staff to trigger the trap and sent the hemp rope flying into the trees. Saxim borrowed a knife from another member and deftly scaled the tree to retrieve the rope and packed it away. They set off back down the trail, Saxim now jumping tree to tree as they went.

Roughly another 10 minutes down the trail Thailee was saved from serious harm by Enron’s quick reflexes. He saved the half Elf from a fall into a 10 foot deep spike filled hole, having just barely caught her by her collar as she stepped into the trap. He pulled her back out of the pit and the rest of the group skirted around the pit to continue along.

Following the Goblin’s trail they came across a large cave in a hillside five miles from the scene of the ambush. A shallow stream ran out of the cave mouth, which was screened by dense briar thickets. A narrow dry path led into the cave on the right hand side of the stream.

While the rest of the group sat back away from the cave deliberating how they might proceed from here, Saxim decided to saunter up to the mouth of the cave to have a look inside. Thailee followed him walking up though the river,near the brush. Upon reaching the entrance Saxim was able to see that there was a small opening into the briars on the right, where he was surprised to see a number of, just as surprised, Goblins. He called called out an alert to the rest of the group and turned to face the enemy.

It seemed that there were four Goblins posted behind the bushes, likely intended to be a lookout, but had not been doing their job very well. Hearing her allies call, Antime ran up to a point where she had a view of path behind the briars, and with a gesture and a whisper cast her spell. The area where the nearest goblin stood burst into flames setting him on fire. The bonfire now making the small path impassable, without stepping into the searing flames.

The now flaming Goblin flailed as he stumbled past Saxim to put himself out in the river’s water. Enraged by the pain of his seared flesh, in one motion he turned and jammed his scimitar into Saxim’s gut. Saxim’s eyes went wide, then dull as he slipped into unconsciousness. The goblin unsheathed his blade from Saxim’s belly and glared at the rest of the group. Saxim’s limp body collapsed in a heap, lying motionless on the damp earth.

The air around Thailee’s hand shimmered and burst into flames, creating a ball of pulsing fire in her palm. She hurdled the ball of flame towards the Goblin who had just dropped her comrade, unfortunately only grazing his shoulder.

Reacting to the unfolding fight, two of the three other vile creatures ran to the bushes, jumped onto some wooden planks that had been laid across the them and began fired arrows from their short bows. Luckily no projectile hit its mark. The last Goblin starting trying to bury the fire that was blocking his way with dirt, but the magic flames simply grew on top of the new dirt.

With a roar of rage, Enron charge the creature who had just run through the small Saxim. With a single mighty swing of his long sword he cleaved the small creature in two. The top half of the slain creature, still letting out sounds of pain, washed down the river.

Kix ran up, stood at the edge of the river and stomped in frustration, being unable to reach the enemies behind the briars. She held her place waiting for any opportunity to strike out.

Unable to fully see any of the enemies beyond the trees and bushes she was behind, Xanphia started to run towards the fray. Mid run she notched an arrow and blindly fired through the branches. In her haste she stumbled as the arrow left her bow. It it flew wildly to the side, striking Kix in the back. Fortunately, her thick scale male stopped the arrow just as it had entered her skin.

Completely frustrated with the situation, Antime trudged through the shallow water right up to the perimeter of the brush. She unclenched her fists, raised her hands up in front of her, and set the entire east side of the river ablaze. Cinders, bones, and charred corpses was all that remained of the goblin lookouts.

Thailee smacked Antime in the back of the head with the blunt end of her spear for all the damage she had done to the forest, but with the immediate damage passed ran to Saxim. She knelt beside him, closed her eyes and held her hands up like a cup in front of her. The rest of the group gathered around her has she worked.

She focused her Druidic energies and suddenly small flowers began blooming from her palms. The energy flowing through her hands forcing the flowers through accelerated growth. The blooms quickly closed upon themselves and grew into small dark berries. Then, in complete contrast to the calm natural scene that had been playing out, she clenched the berries in her hand and smashed them into Saxim’s mouth and down his throat. A moment passed with no reaction, then his eyes slowly opened as everyone let out a sigh of relief.

A little upset at the thump to her head, Antime cast an illusion spell on Thailee which caused the image of a pile of dead raccoons to appear on her forehead. Thailee looked up glaring at Antime, having remembered that she had decimated a large portion of this forest, some of which was still smoldering. Not knowing about the horrible image and with everyone staring awkwardly at her, she took out a tiny tin cup from her pack and began tossing water from the river up onto the embers.

After a few tosses she suddenly stops, staring at her reflection in the water. She angrily stood up, tossed a cup of water into Antime’s face, and went back to putting out the fires. Standing with her arms crossed, now soaked, Antime raised a finger and whispered under her breath. The cup in Thailee’s hands suddenly began to glow red. She dropped it to the ground, glared at Antime and walked away, having successfully extinguished the embers.